The present invention is directed, in general, to an information system and, more specifically, to a system and method for automating telecommunications session initiation and a calling card for use with the system or the method.
Communication is essential in any profession. The exchange of information cards is a common way of initiating communication. Information cards are tangible objects which individuals personally exchange and collect from others. These cards are widely used and studies have indicated that individuals may retain approximately 150 of these cards at any one time.
Besides serving as a vehicle of introduction, information cards also serve as compact sources of pertinent information needed to define or provide contact information for an individual associated with the card. Individuals may use these accumulated collection of cards to remind them of the persons they have met, their affiliations and titles or as a resource for certain other subject matters. The information on exchanged cards, however, is primarily used to begin or continue communication between the card""s recipient and the represented individual or organization.
Typically, these information cards contain several communication options in which an individual can contact a represented person or business. Common modes of communication now include a mailing address, phone number, cellular phone number, beeper number, email address and a fax number.
Establishing and maintaining contact with a recipient of a card may be determined upon the information given to the recipient and the way that information is presented. Several types of information cards, therefore, are currently being used to increase the potential for contact by presenting a certain image and providing vital, directed information. Cards are now printed on wood, metal, plastic and ornate paper in an effort for recipients to retain the distributed cards.
Electronic business cards have also surfaced as another alternative. These types of business cards allow individuals with personal digital assistants (PDA)s or cell phones to exchange information without exchanging a tangible object. Essentially all the various types of cards present ways to contact the represented person or organization in a familiar form that is easy to store and retrieve.
Although the information contained on these cards is somewhat limited, their utility is amazingly broad. Though presented in simple format, however, an individual must still correctly read and use the information contained on a card, for it to be useful. For example, one common error occurs while attempting to send a fax but mistakenly reading the phone number from a card instead of the fax number.
Besides being prone to errors, reading a fax number and manually entering it is also time consuming. Though electronic business cards provide a possible improvement for using the distributed information without human error, they are only useful to those who have a machine capable of receiving the information. Thus someone who uses an electronic business card must also have traditional business cards to distribute.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a way to enhance the use of an information card to facilitate the use of the card in desired communications.
To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, the present invention provides a system and method for automating the initiation of a telecommunications session and a calling card to use with the system or the method. In one embodiment, an automated telephony interface system for use with a telecommunications device includes: (1) a scanner and (2) a session initiator which is coupled to the scanner that extracts a telephone number from information read by the scanner and transmits a signal containing the telephone number to the telecommunications device in order to initiate a telecommunications session.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a method of initiating a telecommunications session that includes: (1) parsing information which was scanned from a calling card in order to extract a telephone number and (2) transmitting a signal containing the telephone number to a telecommunications device in order to cause the telecommunications device to initiate the telecommunications session.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a calling card that includes: (1) human-readable information located on the calling card and (2) machine-readable information located on the calling card which is an encoded version of the human-readable information and is employable by an application without requiring a supporting database to contain the user information.
The foregoing has outlined, rather broadly, preferred and alternative features of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the detailed description of the invention that follows. Additional features of the invention will be described hereinafter that form the subject of the claims of the invention. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiment as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.